![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Facade, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/32ee/e58e/cee8/fb00/033d/newsletter/Cineroleum_Zander_Olsen.jpg?1447441120)
Text description provided by the architects. The Cineroleum was a self-initiated project that transformed a petrol station on Clerkenwell Road into a cinema. The project was an experiment in the the potential for the wider re-use of the UK’s 4,000 empty petrol stations.
![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/3292/e58e/cee8/fb00/033a/newsletter/Cineroleum_David_Grandorge.jpg?1447441027)
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/3333/e58e/cee8/fb00/033e/newsletter/Cineroleum_Assemble_iso.jpg?1447441195)
![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Beam, Windows](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/324a/e58e/cee8/fb00/0338/newsletter/Cineroleum_Assemble_3_copy.jpg?1447440959)
The Cineroleum was an improvisation on the rich iconography and decadent interiors of the golden age picture palace. Classic elements were re-created for the roadside setting using cheap industrial, reclaimed or donated materials. Flip-up seats were made from scaffolding boards, the foyer was furnished with formica-clad school chairs and tables , and the auditorium was enclosed by a curtain, created by hand-sewing about three kilometres of seam in roofing membrane.
![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Beam, Steel](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/32bb/e58e/cee8/fb00/033b/newsletter/Cineroleum_Morley_Von_Sternberg_2.jpg?1447441073)
The Cineroleum was visibly handmade, built on site by a team of over a hundred volunteers, learning and experimenting together, aided by instruction manuals written during the prototyping process.
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Unlike the out-of-town multiplex, The Cineroleum celebrated the social experience of filmgoing, from the popcorn machine and bar in the old station shop through to the programme of approachable classics.
![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Image 6 of 15](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/323a/e58e/ce94/e500/033f/newsletter/Cineroleum_Assemble_1.jpg?1447440944)
Separated from the busiest single-lane road in Europe by a curtain, it allowed for both collective escapism and created a public spectacle on the street for passers-by. At the end of the film the curtain rose, pushing the audience from the imaginative world of the film to the everyday theatre of the street.
![The Cineroleum / Assemble - Image 7 of 15](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5646/327f/e58e/ce94/e500/0341/newsletter/Cineroleum_Assemble_6.jpg?1447441012)